In this week’s Advocate, you’ll find the winners of our annual Best Of the Valley Readers’ Poll, a who’s who and what’s what of the top people, places, and businesses Western Mass and Southern Vermont have to offer. Thank you to everyone who voted. We can’t produce this handy guide without you!
While there are more than 170 Best Of categories, the awards don’t cover everything. For example, we don’t rank the je ne sais quoi. Best Of focuses on local products and services, but what about the best things in life being free?
With that in mind, I bring you the second annual installment of Best Of the Valley: Intangibles.
Best Place to get Beyond an Existential Crisis
Three Sisters Sanctuary
158 Cape St. (Route 112), Goshen. (413) 268-3677.
There are plenty of places in the Valley that will make a person question what she’s doing with her life — the back seat of a patrol car or the floor of the Ale House’s bathroom, for example. But the best place to ponder the meaning of “Why?” is Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen. The sprawling landscape dotted with glass mosaic sculptures, gleaming rock walls, and a great stone dragon demand that attention be focused on what makes life worth living: creation, art, beauty, love, peace, and passion. If you’re feeling like a speck of dust on an insignificant planet in a disinterested universe, at least at Three Sisters you can appreciate the ride.
2nd Place: Gallery in the Woods, 145 Main St, Brattleboro, VT. (802) 257-4777.
3rd Place: Hanging with Hippies at Green River Festival, July 8-10, 2016, Greenfield Community College.
Best Place for Picking up on a Ghost Vibe
Gates of Hell or Seven Gates, Athol
It’s located off Pleasant Hill Road, and rumor has it that a cult performed animal and human sacrifices there just 400 yards from the street. There are seven gates that lead to the clearing where you can find an altar and abandoned house. It’s been said that if you visit this place at night you can hear whispering and screams.
2nd Place: Spoleto restaurant’s basement, 1 Bridge St., Northampton
3rd Place: Van Horn Park, Springfield
Best Place to People-Watch
Hampshire Mall
Hadley is a unique place; it’s got college students and farmers, wealthy scholars and punk rockers — and you can see everyone together picking up their groceries or some odds and ends at the Hampshire Mall. Get a snack and plop down at one of the food court tables to watch the people parade.
2nd Place: Downtown Northampton
3rd Place: Holyoke Bus Station by Veterans’ Memorial Park
Best Restroom
Smith College Museum of Art. 20 Elm St., Northampton. (413) 585-2760
Okay. You can clearly touch a bathroom — that’s not intangible — but follow me on this one: isn’t the feeling of using a public restroom that doesn’t horrify you worth acknowledging? If you haven’t had the pleasure of going in Smith’s Art Museum restroom, you’re missing out on a beautiful experience. The college hired an artist to design the bathroom, which is decked out in rich blue tiles and painted murals on the walls and in the bowls.
2nd Place: Pride Gas Station on East Columbus Avenue in Springfield (nothing fancy, just usually clean.)
3rd Place: Johnson Chapel Ulysses restroom on Amherst College campus.
Best Quiet Spot
Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary
Easthampton and Northampton
A dirt road takes you through acres and acres of tall grasses surrounding small clumps of trees where the only sounds are the birds and the wind. To one side is majestic Mount Tom, to the other land as far as the eye can see. There are a few other bird watchers and nature lovers, and a few cars will cross your path, but they’re all on the same quiet journey.
2nd Place: The Chesterfield Gorge.
3rd Place: Leverett Peace Pagoda, 100 Cave Hill Road.
Contact Kristin Palpini at editor@valleyadvocate.com.
